Graham's 30 Year Old Tawny Port
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Suckling
James -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spectator
Wine - Decanter
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Parker
Robert -
Wong
Wilfred -
Spirits
Wine &
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried cherries, plums and candied fruit with some figs on the nose. Light toffee, too. Medium-to full-bodied, very sweet and layered with dried fruit, smoked wood, caramel and hints of stems. Some dried earth and salted nuts. Very complex. Drink now.
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Wine Enthusiast
Remarkably, this is able to show age and long cask aging, but the flavor is still here: figs and honey, balanced out with burnt caramel aged acidity and a rich (but not sweet) finish. Excellent, top quality aged tawny.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Broad in feel and dark in profile, with walnut and hazelnut notes leading the way, followed by brown bread, dried fig, bitter orange, singed almond and juniper notes. A lovely flash of green tea adds sparkle and detail on the finish, but this stays reliant on its bass line throughout. Drink now. From Portugal.
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Decanter
Builds harmoniously in the glass, with lovely depth and layers, revealing crystallized violets, lavender, cedar, dried pear and fig, plus Madeira honeycake, with creamy praline and Bourbon vanilla to the finish. A nutty spine. Hints of nam pla and walnut extend the reach of its unctuous, honeyed palate. Lingering, caressing finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV 30 Years Tawny Port was bottled in 2013 with a bar-top cork and 125 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is smoother and more harmonious than the Dow this issue, a contrast in house styles. If the Dow's this issue often seemed stern, tight and brooding, this is sexy, sunny and lively, with a burst of sugar on the finish. It starts a little understated and certainly elegant, but it gathers strength and length on the finish. Supple on the first pour, it then adds a touch of brandy, a hit of sugar and a lot of dark chocolate on the finish—just to remind you that this is indeed an old, complex Tawny. The next day, it is beautiful, focused, well balanced and precise. The lifted fruit seems to last indefinitely on the palate. After a week or so, it was darker and more intense. As always, these hold indefinitely in the bottle, barring cork failures, but they are not really meant to be held.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Graham's is one of most revered names in Porto, and its Tawny Aged 30 Years is magnificent. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits the magic of aged fortified wine. Pair its outstanding aromas of roasted nuts, dried dates, and wood with a perfectly aged Stilton. (Tasted: October 23, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Fully mature, the 30-year blend offers cool spicy satisfaction. Its flavors taste of a range of fruits in marmalade, from candied orange zest to kumquats with their peels. Toasty and bright, apricot-rich, this wine’s bittersweet finish will match a savory almont tart.
Tradition, experience and knowledge spanning two centuries have given Graham’s the values that are at the heart of the company’s philosophy. The Graham family motto Ne Oublie (forget not or never forget) perfectly encapsulates the company’s commitment to the Douro Region, born of a deep respect for the past.
Founded in 1820, Graham’s produced some of the greatest Ports of the 20th century, amongst which the 1927, 1935, 1945, 1970 and 2000 Vintages. In 1970 the company changed ownership from the founding family to the Symingtons, who have themselves been Port producers since 1882, however through their Anglo-Portuguese great-grandmother, they can trace their Port heritage back to 1652. Graham’s owns some of the finest vineyards in the Douro Valley, one of the oldest demarcated wine regions in the world and a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The four properties are: Quinta dos Malvedos, Quinta do Tua, Quinta da Vila Velha and Quinta do Vale de Malhadas. Combined, these four mountain estates total 201 hectares of vineyards, located in different areas of the Upper Douro and the Douro Superior, each making distinctive wines that contribute to Graham’s singular character and style.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.